GPS units

Thanks diverian

A friend of mine recently got duped into getting Traks4Africa for hiking with his GPS. It turns out it has a contour interval of about 250m or maybe even 500m. We zoomed in to the Sentinel Car Park (with highest level of detailed set) and I could not even work out where the Ampitheatre is. So, do not buy that for hiking.


On a better note, I figured out something really useful on the Topo Pro 2013 map last night.

The Topo Pro 2013 map is routable for contours as well as for roads. I normally use Routes because a GPS unit handles them better than Tracks. But, if you have a routable contour map and you draw your own track into Basecamp, then it will pick up the elevations as you draw. Thus, the final track as drawn contains the distance and altitude gain/loss.

So, you can draw a track of your planned hike onto the map and immediately see how far and how much up and down you will get. No need to count contours

Some of you may know this already but for those that do not, it will make my life much easier in future.

OSMAnd+ (Open Street Map for Android)

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand.plus
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand.srtmPlugin.paid

It's like an offline Google Maps with full contour lines, hillshade layers, rivers, places of interest, etc. It even has many of the major passes and caves of the Drakensberg built into the map. However, you can also download the GPX from this site and copy the files into the osmand/tracks directory on your phone, and then load them in the map view.

I use this in combination with my GPS watch. The watch records tracks, the phone with OSMAnd is for double-checking direction and finding the passes/rivers/caves.

Totally worth the purchase, probably much cheaper than buying another GPS unit + map data.

Hi All

I am looking at buying a GPS specifically for hiking.
Im on a bit of a budget but could also save for a bit, if needs be.

Any of you have some advise on what to look at and what makes one better from the other?
so far I have only looked at the Garmin eTrex 10, fits the price range but will it suffice?

Thanks

Hey

I'm using the eTrex30 and I'm very satisfied with it. The features I looked for when I bought my GPS were:
- Electronic Compass...which basically let's you navigate while standing stil. With the 20 and 10 you need to be moving / walking for the GPS to be able to determine which direction you are facing.
- Battery life...having a touch screen like with the eTrex35 is nice but it uses more battery life and you can't use it when wearing gloves where as with the eTrex30 you can still operate the little joystick while wearing gloves. The eTrex30 also uses normal AA batteries which can be replaced with fresh batteries in the field. Don't get something which you need to recharge.
- Size...I prefer something small. The smaller screen on the eTrex30 compared to other larger GPS devices is more than enough for navigation. I use the GPS software (Base Camp) combined with Google Earth on my PC to plan routes and find waypoints beforehand then I just upload everything to the GPS and I'm ready to go. Smaller screen = longer battery life.

Save up an extra month or two and rather get yourself the eTrex30...that's my advice.

I also rate the eTrex 30 very highly.

The electronic compass feature is very useful. The eTrex 30 also has a barometric altimeter, which means that you can get a sense of how high up/down a pass you are by looking at the altitude reading which will still be accurate even though you have lost sight of the sky.

It should come preloaded with a recreational map of South Africa, which will make your navigation out in the hills a lot easier.

I have an eTrex20. Thought I would save some money and not get the 30 but the electronic compass and barometric altimeter are actually features you would rather be paying the money for, so if I find myself in the market again I would defiantely be going for that.

My dad had an etrex 10, and although it plots a route as well as any of them, the lack of detail you get on the monochrome screen really doesn't help much when you are trying to navigate...unless you are following a preloaded route.

Just want to reaffirm RudiVE's points:
1. Stay away from touch screen models, taking off gloves to operate the thing gets tedious quickly. (Unless your hiking conditions never require gloves)
2. Don't get a model with rechargeable internal battery. You want a model that works on AA or AAA batteries, to do a field replacement. (Unless you only do shorter day hikes or is willing to gamble on these recharge devices, inadvisable)
3. Get a waterproof and robust model. Don't use your car's garmin nuvi (I kid you not, and yes it ended up trashed).

(Cant go wrong with any of the etrex models, in essence you need to know 1. where you are and 2. where you are going.
Any of the etrex models will do that, some with better nice to have features.)
...

MarkT would you recommend going straight to the paid version (quite cheap) rather than having the hassle of downloading maps and plugins when you upgrade from the free version?

Sorry for the late reply - yes, I go straight for paid because the contour lines are super valuable!